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I think what we are seeing is an increase in diversity to the rental market.
In Denver for example, the issue was that all apartment rents were going up regardless of their location and condition. So the difference between an old, no amenities, small apartment in the suburbs, and a brand new complex in the middle of the city was only a few hundred dollars. I remember seeing studios in Aurora going for $1,200, while new places downtown were going for $1,500.
Now that construction has caught up, the demand has softened across the board. Those who can afford the brand new apartments downtown have more to choose from, so they are less likely to rent out older/lesser quality units. And really this is how it should have been years ago.
I have to admit I am intrigued by Toledo and it's rents that are more like 1980 rents in many cities.
All and all, the cold winter aside it seems to be an impressive city.
Please don't believe that you can get a nice apartment in a safe area in Toledo for $325, that is absolutely not true! My husband and I live about twenty miles from Toledo and owned multiple rental properties there for years. We still own a duplex that is in a working class, blue collar neighborhood that is relatively safe but not stylish or close to the "hot spots" and we get $480/month for a one bedroom unit and are told we are way below market. A couple of years ago we sold a twelve unit building, again in a working class, blue collar neighborhood that is relatively safe but not stylish or close to where everyone wants to be either and we were getting $575/month for a very small, two bedroom apartment and the potential tenants were skeptical at first because our rent was so much more reasonable than others in the area. We are not slum lords, we work very hard to keep our places nice and desirable, we just subscribe to the theory that if your rent is reasonable, you will have happier tenants who stay longer and it also allows you to screen your potential tenants better.
I grew up in this area and have lived her all of my life, and I know the rental/housing market. There is not an apartment in Toledo that rents for $325 that I would ever want to live in, it just wouldn't be safe unless it was subsidized senior housing or something. Toledo is not actually the hellhole that people from outside the area who have never been there assume that it is. It has an evolving downtown/Warehouse District scene and the suburbs are lovely and not inexpensive. The winters aren't always all that bad, either. This past winter we have several days with temps above fifty, even sixty degrees, and it has only snowed enough to actually shovel twice, and we live well north of the city in a cute little town in SE Michigan.
I actually checked some of the prices for apartment rentals in Detroit - there aren't many places under $500 per month. It's not like buying an abandoned house or something. Nice try.
In general, there are plenty of former industrial towns in the Midwest, some well known like Toledo, others less so like Anderson, IN, where prices keep declining and some may be commutable to major job centers.
$950/mo in the Denver area? Cheap to some, not to myself where I've been spoiled with $400/mo down here in small town NM. But that might be coming to an end since many of the jobs I'm finding that are actually giving my applications any glance are all located up there.
I have to admit I am intrigued by Toledo and it's rents that are more like 1980 rents in many cities.
All and all, the cold winter aside it seems to be an impressive city.
The problem with setting down in a low-rent, low-wage city could be that you'll never have the equity or savings to leave that COL strata, if you get what I mean. If you like a low rent city because that's all you can afford, how will you ever be able to afford to live anywhere else? Would you be giving up other options, now or in the future? Will a lower salary ever allow you to move up again?
With an average January low of 22, I'm not sure Toledo really has bitterly cold winters. That's a pretty typical mid-continent winter and actually puts the mornings warmer than mornings you'd find in Indy (20), Pittsburgh (21), Kansas City (18), or even Denver (17). The proximity to the lake really moderates temperatures in Toledo. Overall, Toledo is not a bad little town. It shows obvious signs of being victim to the last half-century of industrial decay, but as with most of the Rustbelt cities the decline is over and things are really turning around for them. It surprises me that there aren't more young people jumping at the opportunity to live somewhere they can earn a $50,000/yr. wage while paying $400 a month in rent and $15 to be served dinner and a drink at the laid back local brewery. Sure the number isn't brag-worthy, but it makes so much more sense than making $90,000 a year while paying $3,000 a month in rent and $60 for dinner and a drink at some place upscale feeling.
And I say this even as a Michigander with a slanted bias against all things Ohio, so you know it's true.
Related to the topic at hand though, I've heard rents and office space is beginning to decline pretty hard in Houston. A lot of this can likely be attributed to a glut of oil and a slowing in new exploration, but I also believe Houston has been overbuilt. There simply aren't enough people willing to bear a rainy, humid, Houston summer, in the city, for the long term.
Hmm. I don't know about rentals in Houston, but the housing market, at least in the upscale suburbs, hasn't shown any signs of slow-down to me, based on the experience of friends who live there, 20 miles or more from the city center, on the NW edge (just beyond the tolled beltway, what is it, the Johnson expressway?). They sold two houses there very easily in the last year and a half and had to move very quickly to get into another one they liked before someone else snatched it away from them. At least a few years ago, homes in that part of Greater Houston were flying off the shelves.
I don't like the summer heat myself either, but it's uncanny how many people in the South and West Coast are utterly winter-averse. They'll accept any kind of heat (or hurricanes, or bugs) rather than ever see snow.
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